


Falling Through The Trapdoor

by raging_storm (orphan_account)



Series: STØRM'S NEW STUFF [2]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Characters Reading Fanfiction, Comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 12:00:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12387660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/raging_storm
Summary: "Why am I always the messed up one in these fics?"Tyler and Josh read fanfiction. Tyler's not quite ready to let it go.





	Falling Through The Trapdoor

They don't know how it happens.

One minute they're goofing off in the living room of Josh's apartment, fooling around with an echo pedal and singing random songs, the next minute they're on Tyler's computer and scrolling through a long list of fanfictions.

Josh has his hand on the mousetrack, hesitantly hovering the cursor over one fic while Tyler stares over his shoulder. "Jesus Christ,"Josh says, a big deal because Josh never says the name of the Lord in vain. "Some of this stuff is really messed up."

There's a fic about literally everything. They don't know how they got there, but they're scrolling through a website called Archiveofourown.org. Tyler remembers the whole step by step process. Searching for a fanfiction website. Clicking on it. Typing in "twenty one pilots" in the search bar. And now the results stare back at them.

"What the..." Josh gives a scoffing laugh. "Found one based off of Heathens. It's a prison AU."

Tyler grips the swivel chair Josh is sitting in. "What's an AU?" he asks.

"Alternate universe," Josh replies immediately, clicking on it. It's a short story, some two thousand words long. He reads over the summary, then clicks out of it. "Nah, that's boring."

"How do you know what it means?" Tyler asks. "You've never- oh, god, Josh, please tell me you haven't-"

"Shut up. Hey, this looks interesting." Josh hovers the mouse over something. "This is one where I think you're really hot and we make out in the studio for half an hour. Wanna read it?" Josh grins as Tyler's face turns crimson and he chokes, and he says, "I'm kidding. I wouldn't want to read that either."

Tyler coughs. "I don't know why I do this to myself," he mutters under his breath.

Josh hums.

When they come across SoloChaos's profile, Tyler lunges for the mouse, pushing Josh out of the way and scrolling way past it.

"Hey!" Josh protests, but he's laughing.

"Yeah, no," Tyler says. " We aren't doing that again."

Josh moves the swivel chair back in front of the computer. "I can't even click on it again," he says. "I'm not real, remember?"

Tyler hides his face in his hands as he crouches next to Josh. "Moving on," he groans.

Josh frowns as he scrolls through more fics. "Some of these are really messed up,"he comments. "Like, really messed up. We're in mental hospitals and stuff like that. Wow, is this really what Clique members see us as?"

"What?" Tyler strains to look, and quickly reads a synopsis. "Wow. Look at the tags. I have the works. Depression, anxiety, BPD...jeez." He wants to laugh, but the laugh sticks in his throat. Finally, he voices a concern. "Josh?"

"Yeah? You want to stop? I mean, we are pretty sidetracked-"

"Why am I always the screwed-up one in these fics?" Tyler blurts out.

"What?" Josh says, and his brows contract. He swivels to face Tyler. 

Tyler clears his throat. "I asked why I'm always the messed-up one," he says, voice cracking slightly. "I always seem to have depression or have...issues." Tyler shudders.

"Hey," Josh says. "It's not just you. Look, here's one, I've got social anxiety in this one."

"But I'm always the awkward, antisocial depressed kid," Tyler protests. "I don't get it. I mean, look at all the other fandoms. None of the guys there are frickin' weird."

The answer should be pretty obvious as to why the Archive authors choose to write their stories in such a way, but Tyler seems oblivious to it. Josh clears his throat.

"Maybe we should be done," he suggests. "Get back to work."

Tyler looks irritated, but he shrugs. Ready to let the matter drop. "I guess," he says. He pushes himself up from where he was crouching down and heads back over to their setup. "What song now?"

"The one we were just playing," Josh says. He shuts the laptop and joins his friend. 

They play for another hour, Tyler fiddles around with the recordings on his other computer, the fanfictions have been forgotten. After they eat something, Josh yawns. "I'm ready to crash," he tells Tyler.

"Sure," Tyler says. "Practice again tomorrow, yeah?"

"Of course." Josh claps Tyler on the back, and climbs upstairs.

He doesn't see Tyler going back to the computer right where Josh left it and opening the lid.


End file.
